The Onion Eater

This performance grows from the paradoxical nature of the onion: a humble foodstuff bound to the everyday, yet charged with symbolic weight.

In some traditions, the onion is thought to stir desire, fortifying the body’s urges. At the same time, raw onion brings tears to the eyes, burns the mouth and stomach, and turns the eater away in aversion.

The performance is an attempt to hold it all.

The work is rooted in Buddhist reflections on attachment and aversion – two forces shaping human existence. Through ritualised action, a simple act of eating unfolds as a meditation on desire, disgust, and the body that experiences both.

Two ritual objects shape the space: an envelope filled with ash, invoking impermanence, and a crystal bowl of water, evoking the natural clarity.

Together they frame the performance as a passage between craving and release, embodiment and dissolution.

Documentation: Meri Karhu